More Articles

View SlideshowRequest to buy this photoASSOCIATED PRESSA Swiss woman, hooded to protect her identity, is escorted to a hospital by Indian police for examination after being raped by men during a bicycle trip.

NEW DELHI, India — The gang rape of a 39-year-old Swiss tourist while on a camping trip with her
husband on Friday has further ratcheted up the spotlight on sexual violence in India.

The woman, who had been cycling with her husband in impoverished Madhya Pradesh state in central
India, was attacked by at least seven men while the couple were camping for the night, police said
yesterday. The assailants also robbed the couple of $180 and a cellphone.

The attack comes at a sensitive time for India. Not only does it involve a foreign visitor at a
time when the nation is trying to expand its tourism trade, it follows on the heels of a
high-profile rape case in New Delhi involving a 23-year-old physiotherapy student who died after
being sexually assaulted in mid-December on a bus.

One of the five men charged in the December attack hanged himself in his cell on Monday. A sixth
accused in the case will be tried in juvenile court.

The brutality of that case has sparked soul-searching, fear and outrage over politicians and
apathetic police, India’s creaky legal system and a social system that frequently treats women as
second-class citizens. A United Nations report last week ranked India 132 among 187 nations in
gender equality, behind neighbor Pakistan.

“We are deeply shocked by this tragic incident suffered by a Swiss citizen and her partner in
India,” the Swiss Foreign Ministry in Bern said.

The ministry said it hoped the attackers would be “swiftly identified and would appear before a
court to answer for their actions.”

The couple were on their way to Agra to see the Taj Mahal when they stopped Friday night to set
up a tent in a forested area, local news reports said. The trip reportedly involved cycling from
Mumbai to New Delhi on a three-month tourist visa.

The attackers, who wielded sticks, also tied up and beat the woman’s husband.

The woman was admitted to a hospital for tests, authorities said, and has since been released.
Police inspector R.K.S. Gurjar said that no arrests had been made but 25 to 30 men had been
detained for interrogation.